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OT: Tragedy in Baltimore.


Claude Balls

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This is just insane. Cargo ship hits one of the busiest thoroughfares in Baltimore. Takes out a 1.6 mile bridge in one of the busiest commercial harbors in the world. The ship goes black, then the lights come back on, but the ship goes out of control and hits the bridge support. Only positive thing is that it happened at 1:30 in the morning, so not much traffic. Here's a sped up version of the video. Never seen anything like it.

 

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Crazy stuff.

Not much scarier than the idea of drowning, trapped in your vehicle.

Also, in water that cold, even if you escape your vehicle, the odds of survival are very slim.  

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54 minutes ago, kas23 said:

I agree. The video is incredible. Traffic was flowing fairly briskly, then luckily thinned out to almost none right before the ship hit. 

It thinned out because MTA police shut down the bridge right before the ship struck the support. No doubt saving many lives. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough time to warn construction workers that were on the bridge. 

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25 minutes ago, Sidc3000 said:

It thinned out because MTA police shut down the bridge right before the ship struck the support. No doubt saving many lives. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough time to warn construction workers that were on the bridge. 

I hadn’t heard the detail re: construction workers.  Awful.

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3 hours ago, Weave said:

I hadn’t heard the detail re: construction workers.  Awful.

There was less than 100 seconds warning time. There was no way to get a vehicle to the middle and back, nor was there time to walk/run/sprint.

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52 minutes ago, SDS said:

There was less than 100 seconds warning time. There was no way to get a vehicle to the middle and back, nor was there time to walk/run/sprint.

Do they have gates? How were they able to stop traffic in such limited time?

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47 minutes ago, shrader said:

Do they have gates? How were they able to stop traffic in such limited time?

That’s a really good question and I’m not sure of the details. My presumption is that at least one side would have various construction vehicles. Maybe that also included the other side. I really don’t know. I’m pretty sure it’s a toll bridge, so I don’t know if they were able to notify them. If I find out the actual answer, I’ll report back. 

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40 minutes ago, SDS said:

That’s a really good question and I’m not sure of the details. My presumption is that at least one side would have various construction vehicles. Maybe that also included the other side. I really don’t know. I’m pretty sure it’s a toll bridge, so I don’t know if they were able to notify them. If I find out the actual answer, I’ll report back. 

The boat communicated that it lost control. So there was some time to stop cars from getting on the bridge before the crash. 

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1 hour ago, JohnC said:

The boat communicated that it lost control. So there was some time to stop cars from getting on the bridge before the crash. 

SDS said that earlier. I’m asking how they actually stopped the cars in such a tight time window. You’re definitely not getting cops out there to block it off, so thank god they had whatever they did have there. 

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18 minutes ago, shrader said:

SDS said that earlier. I’m asking how they actually stopped the cars in such a tight time window. You’re definitely not getting cops out there to block it off, so thank god they had whatever they did have there. 

NYSDOT has those red/white barrier arms at every entrance to I-90. Stands to reason there was something similar at the entrance to that bridge.

Edit: Looked around on street view in Google Maps on the eastern entrance to the trussed bridge. No sign of an emergency barrier mechanism.

Edited by That Aud Smell
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10 hours ago, Weave said:

Crazy stuff.

Not much scarier than the idea of drowning, trapped in your vehicle.

Also, in water that cold, even if you escape your vehicle, the odds of survival are very slim.  

The water isn't that cold around 48 easily survivable.

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2 hours ago, shrader said:

SDS said that earlier. I’m asking how they actually stopped the cars in such a tight time window. You’re definitely not getting cops out there to block it off, so thank god they had whatever they did have there. 

Police were already there because of the construction.

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8 hours ago, Demoted said:

The water isn't that cold around 48 easily survivable.

48 is not easily survivable.  Hypothermia in just a few minutes.  Numbness and loss of dexterity in the same time frame.   Add the shock on entry and drowning is much more likely than not.

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40 minutes ago, Weave said:

48 is not easily survivable.  Hypothermia in just a few minutes.  Numbness and loss of dexterity in the same time frame.   Add the shock on entry and drowning is much more likely than not.

Swimming with all of your clothes on is no easy task either.

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When I scuba dive, even with water below 70, I need a wetsuit. Granted, that's deeper water, but at 48 degrees after impact from whatever that height was will induce disorientation within seconds. 

It's crazy to see this happen in 2024, all because of a possible glitch. No manual override, like a captains steering wheel?

I guess we wait for the details to come out, at least it appears to be accidental at the moment 

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